AT&T announced only a few days ago that it was cutting the price of the HTC First phone with Facebook Home from $99 to $.99 with a new contract. At the same time the wireless carrier also announced that the off-contract price of the device would drop from $450 to $350. That move was apparently an attempt to clear stock as sources claim AT&T will discontinue the HTC First.

According to Boy Genius Report, sales of the HTC First are so abysmal that AT&T decided to cancel the phone not long after it launched. All unsold inventory left in AT&T stores around the country will reportedly be returned to HTC. BGR cites sources that claim AT&T sold fewer than 15,000 HTC First smartphones nationwide through last week even though the phone was priced at only $.99.

Facebook Home has received its share of criticism with many calling it a product needing some serious attention. Other reports indicate that sales staff at AT&T stores don't like Facebook Home or the HTC First and have made little effort to sell the handset to customers.

Currently, the biggest selling devices on the AT&T network -- by a large margin -- are the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S 4.

HTC has a contract with AT&T meaning that AT&T can't pull its in-store display for the First until the contract expires. It's unclear exactly when that promotion will end and when AT&T will pull the device off store shelves. The fact that HTC paid big money for advertising in AT&T stores in the device is still unable to sell says a lot about how consumers view HTC and Facebook Home.

Is anyone at all surprised this failed? This is a simple case of the Zuck miscalculating the value average folks put on Facebook. Its the same thing that happens to actors believing their product(movies) have any significance past a momentary diversion from life for consumers. If they would spend some time outside of the bubble of people that tell them exactly what they want to hear they just might stumble onto the next great thing.

"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer